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October 25, 2008

Mickey A. Mouse

I sympathize with the difficulties of county clerks' employees as they try to weed out the Harry Potters, Mickey Mouses, and Ima Hoggs from legitimate registered voters with similar names.

But here's a cautionary tale:

During my university years I worked on the yearbook staff, and as a lowly freshman, was assigned to Index duty. We'd often come across plainly nonsense names: Ima Hogg, U.R. Stupid, Luke Skywalker (the 1980s version of Harry Potter), etc. Usually I'd ask an editor before deleting the name from the index, which meant whichever smart alec had signed up as that person (usually in a group photo) wasn't listed in the index.

One day I came across "B.A. Flake", obviously a hoax name, I figured, and being in a particularly impatient mood, I scratched it off the list.

Flash forward a few years: I am now Mrs. B. A. Flake. My husband, should he ever achieve notoriety, will be untraceable in his college yearbook.

Comments

I sympathize with the difficulties of county clerks' employees as they try to weed out the Harry Potters, Mickey Mouses, and Ima Hoggs from legitimate registered voters with similar names.

But here's a cautionary tale:

During my university years I worked on the yearbook staff, and as a lowly freshman, was assigned to Index duty. We'd often come across plainly nonsense names: Ima Hogg, U.R. Stupid, Luke Skywalker (the 1980s version of Harry Potter), etc. Usually I'd ask an editor before deleting the name from the index, which meant whichever smart alec had signed up as that person (usually in a group photo) wasn't listed in the index.

One day I came across "B.A. Flake", obviously a hoax name, I figured, and being in a particularly impatient mood, I scratched it off the list.

Flash forward a few years: I am now Mrs. B. A. Flake. My husband, should he ever achieve notoriety, will be untraceable in his college yearbook.